Audrey’s mum is going insane thanks to an article about teenagers being addicted to computer games in the Daily Mail. All the signs point to what her brother – Frank – is experiencing, and her Mum has decided to put a stop to it. Even if that means throwing the laptop out a window. Not that Audrey blames her. How can she when she has been going through something so much worse in the last few months?

Audrey has a social anxiety disorder, thanks to some event that happened a few months ago at her old school and that she really doesn’t want to discuss thank you very much. Her anxiety levels got so bad that she spent some time in the hospital, she’s on medication, and she sees a therapist weekly. They’re trying to get her better, but even the ringing of the doorbell sends her into a downward spiral. That is until she meets Linus. Granted their first meeting doesn’t go all that well with her running off and having an attack, but their other meetings are better. He talks to her in a way that doesn’t make her freak out all that often. And slowly but surely, she gets better. But, with anxiety there isn’t one huge cure all and an old face from her past wants to talk to her to apologize.

So after a historical fiction binge and wandering through fantasy, I found that it was time for a contemporary. I needed something without wizards blowing fireballs, or tyrannical kings. Finding Audrey was definitely the book to turn to. This isn’t the normal contemporary novel though and it’s because of Audrey. Her condition is not something I usually see. She let’s anxiety rule her life and that is her fault that she has to overcome throughout the whole book. How she got this anxiety problem isn’t explained either. I can hazard a few guesses. But Linus is interesting too because he helps her through it while at the same time falling for her. That whole scene in the park with the ice cream? Adorable. I just wish that Audrey’s downward spiral near the end of the book hadn’t been rooted in the fact that Linus hadn’t texted her back. If it had just been about her confrontation with Izzy that would have been okay.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. I felt like Audrey relied too much on Linus to get better and while being somewhat cute, I kind of wished she relied more on her doctor. I also wished I had a more definite idea of what happened to Audrey that made her sink so low. It wasn’t fun playing a guessing game.